He argues that the traditional work of PR professionals—creating or curating useful or entertaining content, engaging constituencies, and promoting
sites—have all been the responsibility of PR for years. Now that marketing and advertising have "discovered" the value of these tactics, marketing and
advertising are filling those roles and PR is being marginalized.

Hallahan says content marketing, branded journalism, native advertising, and promoted user endorsements all encroach on the traditional PR role. When
marketing sets up separate groups to create such content, it undermines professionalism in PR, devalues relationship building, and challenges transparency.
Of course (and most important, from our perspective), that wreaks havoc on measurement and evaluation, confounding the standard assumptions about what is
paid and unpaid.

2. But if we're good, we might be recession-proof.

"Is Public Relations Recession Proof?" (pdf) demonstrated that employment of PR mangers and specialists increased as total employment decreased and the unemployment rate increased. Weekly
wages of PR specialists increased significantly as the unemployment rate increased.

Go figure. My hunch is that companies knew that it was more cost-effective to hire a good PR person than any other professional.

The good news is that 96 percent believe mass media coverage influences corporate reputation, and 72 percent feel that social media has had an impact. The
bad news is that CEOs:

Turn to their peers far more often than to professional communicators when they need advice.

See speaking as more important than listening.

Do not see communications professionals as a first choice to get help, even when it comes to issues of public opinion. They are more likely to turn
to their peers.

Believe that their personal communications contribute more to corporate success than that of the PR pros.

Of note, CEOs see motivating employees, fostering corporate trust, and supporting a positive image as the most important goals. They also perceive internal
communications as the most relevant goal of professional communicators, but marketing communications gets the nod for being the best-performing discipline.

4. If you want to improve your public relationships, engage in social networks.

Turns out it has a pretty positive effect. They found that the more audiences are engaged, the more likely they are to view the organization as
transparent. Countless studies have shown that transparency leads to trust.

Other findings included:

Corporate social network engagement helps companies to be embedded in personal networks and communicate in a personal, intimate, genuine manner,
thus being perceived as more authentic. So what? It turns out that authenticity demonstrated a larger impact on the quality of the company relationship
than transparency does.

The value of social media engagement should be measured in terms of relationships. To be best in class in social media engagement, companies must
embrace transparency, create up-to-date social content tailored to meet and gratify the needs of their audiences, and engage in conversations,
collaborations, communities, and activities in an authentic manner.

Perceived transparency and authenticity significantly and largely contribute to an improved relationship between an organization and its audiences.

Respondents who were more deeply engaged with social network pages tended to be more trusting of, more satisfied with, and more committed to the
organization, and to feel more empowered in the relationship.

She defined brand advocacy campaigns as those that provided a means for the advocates to both engage with the brand and then engage their own followers.
Influencer campaigns were those using a celebrity or popular blogger.

She analyzed the top 50 Facebook brands based on Socialbaker's list of January 2014 and found that brands are using both types of campaigns equally, with a
very wide variety of content, including Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest. Most are designed to get votes or shares for content. Though the more influential
bloggers were pretty clear about when they were getting paid, there is room for confusion among brand advocates, making transparency a key concern.

Although PR alumni appreciated their PR degrees, many soon move on to marketing, sales, or other jobs. Many were frustrated with the lack of business
education they received. The major reasons listed for not working in the field were, "Liking other career choices more," "Seeing more money in other
fields," and, "Not being able to find a job."

What makes them stick around? They like the flexible career path and opportunities for advancement. While in school what did they dislike most about their
chosen major? Lack of social media and group projects.

7. Focus on being good citizens; don't just tweet about it.

An in-depth analysis of the corporate use of Twitter and Facebook for posting CSR information revealed that what you post on Twitter and Facebook has very
little bearing on your reputation.

They used industry rankings to rank Fortune 100 companies abased on their CSR and sustainability performance and then compared them against their use of
YouTube. Turns out that the highest-ranked companies were significantly more likely to include diversity, health, and their products. Lower-ranked
companies were significantly more likely to compare their current results against those of prior years.

1. Ensure that your social media policy is explicit about who owns which accounts, including who managers the account and what his/her responsibility is.
The policy should make it clear that passwords and user identification should be retained by the employer.

2. Employers should have social media accounts created in their name that are not linked to employee's personal social media accounts.

3. Employers should make clear in their policy that employees should not work on the corporate social media account outside of work hours.

4. Employers should ensure that employees sign the policy.

For PR practitioners he advises:

1. Recognize that social media accounts have monetary value. If you take your work with you, you must be explicit about ownership rights.

2. Keep your personal and professional social networks separate.

3. Understand the ownership policies of employers and clients up front and in writing.

Katie Delahaye Paine helps companies define success and design measurement programs for their PR, Social Media and Communications programs. Her most
recent venture,
Paine Publishingwhere a version of this post first appeared, continues her consulting and educational work in the field of measurement, providing newsletters, as well as training, consulting and dashboard design.